Pages

August 26, 2011

Happiness Is...Discount Hardware

When Denny and I first decided that we wanted to buy our house, I began doing extremely silly things. Like buying cabinet hardware. Yeah. Never mind that we didn’t (and still don’t) have things like…oh, you know, a full-sized couch? A guest bed? Any grown-up furniture to speak of, essentially? No, I was worried about kitchen fixtures. I even went so far as to buy several different styles and put them on our apartment cabinets, just to see what they looked like.

I played around with several different styles. From rounded “bowl-style” pulls (my term, not a technical one) to oil-rubbed bronze knobs to painted ceramics to bar pulls.

I thought about each one, analyzing the consequences of each far more carefully than I did when making the decision to buy our house (ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration…but only a bit).

I eventually decided on these flattened brushed nickel, delicately arched pulls from Lowe’s. They’re about 5 inches long and they’re just modern enough and comfortable enough that I’m pretty sure I could live with them for…well, ever (I was super tempted by the bar pulls, by the way, but knew that I’d never be cool enough to pull them off…haha—I punned).

The only problem? Well, I was looking in the kitchen one day during one of our walk-throughs (we did quite a few because of all the work the bank did on our house before it officially became ours), when I began to count the doors and drawers…and there are 21 doors and 15 drawers in our kitchen! I know! Wtf, mate? Upon realizing this, I experienced two emotions: feeling excited at how blessed for space we are and pissed because do-you-know-how-much-hardware-COSTS? The pulls that I fell in love with were $5 each, before taxes (which I really am a dork to complain about, since they're much cheaper than many other styles that I liked and which are very popular right now). Are you doing the math? Because I sure as heck did. If I wanted to put that style of pulls on all the drawers and doors (and I did), it would cost nearly $200.

Now, call me cheap, but I just couldn’t do it. Especially when there are so many other things that need to be done around here (like painting, purchasing real furniture, paying the bills, and keeping my sanity). I reluctantly said goodbye to my dreams of delicately arched pulls and decided to make do with what I had (which, let me remind you, is currently no hardware at all).

Then, just as I was getting to the point of breaking down and buying some very cheap-o interim hardware, a wonderful thing happened. I was at Lowe’s (as is very usual these days) and I was sniffing hopefully around the hardware aisle when I saw the most beautiful sight I’ve ever had the pleasure of beholding (again, slight exaggeration): A yellow clearance sticker on MY hardware! Clearance, you say? How clearanced? Because, as any veteran shopper will tell you, not all clearances are created equal. Well, let me just say, this one was a doozy. They were marked down to 60% off. Yep. This, of course, resulted in the immediate purchase of a humungous stack of hardware, like so…

Aren’t they pretty? I walked away with 24 pulls for only $52. A savings of…wait for it…$67! I, obviously, was thrilled.

“But, Ashley!” you say. “You need 36 pieces!”

Well, you know, somehow I noticed that and my decision concerning that minor detail is this: either A) I’ll continue to scour all the local Lowe’s until I’ve accumulated enough hardware to outfit the whole place (looking online is a no-go because they don’t sell them there), or B) I’ll put the pulls on all the doors and buy some coordinating knobs for all the drawers. Either way, I’m totally fine with the result. Plus, now I can say once and for all, when Denny asks me (in complete exasperation), why is it necessary to visit the home improvement store on a daily basis, that good things come to those who…obsessively lurk in the hardware aisle? Hmmm. Maybe I won’t say that, after all.

PS: And for anyone wondering why I haven’t made good on my promise to show completed pics of the Moroccan window treatment I’m doing, well, let me just show you this:

No, I’m not “giving” you the finger. Just showing it to you. See that blister? Well, it turns out that hand cutting 150 or so Moroccan panels is rather more intensive than I first thought. So, that being said, I’m working on it, but don’t expect to see anything completed before the end of next week. Sorry, but that’s how the cookie crumbles (or the finger blisters…eew. That’s definitely not as good a saying…) –A

@Amanda - So do I! Unless we decide to go with no doors on the top cabinets...I think we're going to try it out and see how we like it. :)

@Kaydeemcdee - Um. Yeah. That's what I said. And that wasn't even the most expensive! Gatehouse and Hickory are like the generic brands of hardware. You should see what the designer stuff goes for...It's terrifying.